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"This event has the highest content value in the industry: top vendors, top partners, and absolutely the best event management!"
Agenda Last edited on: 2008-09-23 12:54:34 CDT: Solution Provider 2006
| Sunday, February 26 | ||||
| 12:30 pm - 8:00 pm |
Registration Open
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| 1:00 pm - 3:00 pm |
Demo Rooms Open
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| 3:00 pm - 3:30 pm |
Delegate Orientation sponsored by Philips
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| 3:45 pm - 4:30 pm |
Vendor World Premiere – Microsoft
Margo Day, Vice President, US Partner Group, Microsoft, will be discussing the value of the Microsoft Partner Program and uncover the wealth of benefits and opportunities available to its partners. Microsoft recognize that all our partners are critical to helping us realize our vision. We are committed to your success. From business planning to customer retention, the Microsoft Partner Program offers a single, integrated partnering framework that recognizes your expertise, rewards you for the total impact that you have in the technology marketplace, and delivers value to help your business succeed, regardless of your business size or focus. By partnering with Microsoft, you can extend your market reach, reduce your costs, increase your profitability, and help your customers achieve their full business potential. |
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| 4:45 pm - 5:30 pm |
Session – Motivational Guest Speaker: Joe Genduso
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| 5:45 pm - 6:30 pm |
Vendor World Premiere – HP & Partners: Engaging Potential
In today's marketplace, the phrase 'strength in numbers' resonates particularly well when it comes to the advantages of partnering. Realizing those advantages begins with a sound plan of engagement –a fact of which HP is very familiar, based on the recent launch of its SMB sales engagement model in 2005. Please join John Thompson, Vice President and General Manager of the HP Americas Solution Partners Organization as he provides an 'engaging' view of the new model and how HP is striving to redefine the art of partnering. |
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| 6:45 pm - 8:00 pm |
Delegate Reception sponsored by SonicWALL
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| Monday, February 27 | ||||
| 7:15 am - 8:00 am |
Delegate Solution Provider Breakfast
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| 8:00 am - 12:00 pm |
Exhibitor Set-up
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| 8:15 am - 11:45 am |
XChange Appointments
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| 8:45 am - 9:45 am |
Vendor Session: “Technology Trends and Opportunities in Western Europe”
Moderator: Monty Cornell, Director of Research, CMP Channel Group As channel development becomes an increasingly global issue, theCMP Channel Group is pleased to provide some insight by sharing ground breaking research on channel trends, opportunities and challenges facing Solution Providers in Western Europe with specific findings from France, Germany and the UK. This research will provide an overview on several topics including: -Hot technologies and services -Elements most important to SPsin evaluating -Importance and effectiveness of Lead Generation -Marketing issues and opportunities -Impediments and opportunities to business growth -Primary sources of revenue |
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| 10:00 am - 11:00 am |
Vendor Training Session - MarketStar
"Measuring Channel Health to Impact Sales" Which indicators best describe the health of your channel today and in the future? MarketStar will share real world examples that demonstrate how to measure your partners’ confidence in you as their vendor of choice Learn from channel experts how to create partner profiles that will assist you in the targeting, recruiting, and developing reseller accounts. Find out how to leverage POS data to determine whether you have the right mix of resellers supporting your products. Through this dynamic presentation you will learn how to diagnose whether your channel is operating at full health in order to best execute more strategic sales plans. Join us to hear case studies, strategies, and techniques that can have the most impact on sales right now. |
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| 11:15 am - 12:00 pm |
Vendor Training Session - IPED
Moderator: Ryan Morris, IPED Director of Channel Intelligence How can technology vendors identify the most effective solution providers to partner with? And what factors of business operations have the most significant impact on channel profitability? In this session, the Institute for Partner Education and Development (IPED) will discuss the latest research into solution provider business models and share important findings that will help vendors measure and actively improve partner performance. Join IPED for an exclusive first look at the new Partner Competency and Profitability Benchmark. |
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| 12:00 pm - 12:45 pm |
Vendor World Premiere – CA
Moderator: James Hanley, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Partner Sales CA's vision is to unify and simplify the IT environment for customers of any size. Please join James Hanley, senior vice president of worldwide partner sales, as he presents CA’s latest enterprise security solution: Integrated Threat Management r8. Learn how partners will play a pivotal role in the company’s market strategy. |
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| 12:45 pm - 3:00 pm |
Solution Pavilion Open/Lunch sponsored by D&H
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| 3:15 pm - 4:00 pm |
General Session – Faletra on the Record
Robert Faletra, President CMP Channel Group, has been a keen observer of the channel for over 17 years. As one of the most influential technology journalists in the market today, he has reported and commented on the constant change and growth in the channel on a weekly basis in CRN. Once again, the channel and solution providers are evolving as the service model, emerging technologies and increased IT spending come to the forefront. Join this interactive session where ‘Faletra’ answers YOUR questions and offers his insight, perspective and opinion -on the record. This session promises to be a lively, open and engaging discussion on the current state of —and the future of the channel. |
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| 4:15 pm - 5:00 pm |
Vendor World Premiere – AMD
AMD64 solutions give the power of choice to the Channel Presenter: Jonathan Seckler, Manager, North America Channel Marketing AMD64 is proven technology that drives today’s business platforms – customer-centric innovation from an industry leader, AMD, making AMD64-based solutions an intelligent investment for business PCs. Come see and hear how AMD64 platforms deliver commercial-grade quality, essential reliability and outstanding performance to meet the rigorous demands of powerful business computing |
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| 5:00 pm - 6:30 pm |
Demo Rooms Open
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| Tuesday, February 28 | ||||
| 7:15 am - 8:00 am |
Delegate Solution Provider Breakfast
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| 8:00 am - 10:45 am |
XChange Appointments
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| 8:30 am - 9:30 am |
Vendor Training Session - A Digital Connect Research Presentation
The Connected Market - Tapping the Newest Channel Segment Moderator: Keith Newman, Chief Strategist, Digital Connect Magazine Convergence has yielded many great new opportunities for the channel and manufacturers. Perhaps the greatest challenge is delivering connected solutions into the home. Driven by strong demand for new voice, data and video technologies, a growing number of system builders and solution providers are entering the home with greater sales and margin potential than ever before. Today's challenge is understanding the new Digital Integrator channel and how to create a plan that allows you to build a winning strategy. Digital Connect Magazine debuts its new market research presentation on this new Digital Integrator channel, who the players are, what solutions they are focusing on and what are the keys they look for in determining their vendor partners. |
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| 9:45 am - 10:45 am |
Vendor Training Session - The State of Technology: Where Does Innovation Reside
Speaker: Robert DeMarzo, VP and Publisher, VARBusiness VARBusiness will present the findings from its latest Business Intelligence research on the State of Technology Innovation in the server and storage markets. This groundbreaking research project studies solution providers’ perceptions about innovation among today’s leading vendors along with their analysis of key market market segments. Included in this research, and featured prominently as part of this presentation,will be a discussion of how solution providers innovate when building solutions. Clearly, there is a perception among today’s solution providers that vendors are not producing innovative technology but playing a pricing and marketing game. The research concludes that true innovation centers on the solution provider’s ability to apply technology to solving a business problem along with their ability to integrate into a customer’s existing infrastructure. Prepare for a lively and dynamic discussion. |
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| 11:00 am - 11:45 am |
Vendor World Premiere – IBM
Expand Your Business Opportunities with IBM, Igniting new growth Speaker: Debra Thompson, Vice President, IBM WW Channels and Solutions Marketing Speaker: Dan Shea, Director, pSeriesSales, IBM Americas Together with our Business Partners, IBM delivers proven and innovative products, technologies and services to our clients. During this session, IBM executives will review the latest announcements around the p5 System and IBM Tivoli Express Portfolio of solutions. You will learn how, as a solution provider, you can easily incorporate these advanced technologies into your solutions, creating greater security, productivity and reliability for your mid-sized clients. But products are only one piece of the puzzle --whether you are a large enterprise or a start-up, the ability to build and nurture a strong partner ecosystem is critical to success. IBM executives will share ways to create this crucial partnership ecosystem through PartnerWorldIndustry Networks. |
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| 12:00 pm - 12:45 pm |
Delegate Lunch sponsored by Ingram Micro
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| 1:00 pm - 1:45 pm |
General Session:
Moderator: Heather Clancy, VP/Editor, CRN This discussion will mix exclusive, brand-new research on the managed services movement from CRNand the Institute for Partner Education and Development with insight from channel pioneers who have made serious investments in the managed service provider business model. Among topics that will be debated: what the term "managed services" really means and why they matter now (even if you've been doing it for years); which business partnerships will be key for an effective and efficient managed services practice; and platform technologies that could make a difference for you and your customers. |
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| 1:45 pm - 3:45 pm |
Solutions Pavilion Open
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| 3:45 pm - 4:45 pm |
Exhibitor Teardown
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| 4:00 pm - 4:45 pm |
Concurrent Sessions
Session 1: "Vendor Loyalty: Is the Reward Worth the Risk?" Moderator: Craig Zarley, Editor, CRN More and more vendors, led by Hewlett-Packard's Mark Hurd, are demanding loyalty from their solution provider partners. Sell more of our stuff and we’ll include you in the favored inner circle of partners, vendors claim. But is casting your lot with a single vendor worth the risk? Do you make more money by partnering with a single vendor or put your entire business at risk should vendors fail to deliver promised rewards to loyal partners? Is vendor loyalty at odds with customer loyalty? CRN Industry Editor Craig Zarley and a panel of solution providers will examine how vendor-loyal business models will fare in an IT environment dominated by multi-vendor solutions. Session 2: "Finding Success with Alternatives" Moderator: Carolyn April, VARBusiness managing editor Solution providers always find comfort with market leaders. After all, who doesn't want to buy Cisco, HP and IBM? But a number of solution providers are breaking their bonds with traditional market leaders, and either leading with or pushing second-tier market leaders. In this session, VARBusiness managing editor Carolyn April discusses the trends and ingredients for success with non-market leading vendors. Joining April will be solution providers who have found success with Alternatives, and they'll share their winning formulas. |
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| 4:45 pm - 6:00 pm |
Demo Rooms Open
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| 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm |
Pre-Channel Champions Reception sponsored by IBM
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| 7:45 pm - 10:15 pm |
Channel Champions Awards Dinner
Celebrating its 16th year, CRN's Channel Champions is one of the largest and broadest-based solution provider market studies in the industry. CRN is extending its congratulations beyond editorial coverage by publicly honoring its Channel Champions at a formal awards event. The CRN Channel Champions Awards event is being held at the new Georgia Aquarium and includes a formal sit-down dinner, engaging multimedia awards presentation and entertainment by comedian Jim Gaffigan. This year's survey covered a wide range of categories, including security and storage as well as newer and fast-growing technologies such as application integration middleware and voice over IP. A total of 26 categories, and more than 100 vendors, were included in the Survey. The event is being sponsored by Cisco, McAfee, Microsoft, Oracle, Symantec and Toshiba. |
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| Wednesday, March 01 | ||||
| 7:00 am - 2:00 pm |
Delegate Return Shipping Desk Open sponsored by Aten
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| 7:30 am - 8:15 am |
General Continental Breakfast for all attendees
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| 8:30 am - 9:15 am |
General Session:
Moderator: Lawrence Walsh , VARBusiness Editor Solution providers aren't limited by geography when expanding their business. A growing number of solution providers are reaching across the oceans to partner with foreign counterparts on building solutions, developing middleware and supplying products beyond their backyard. In this general session, VARBusiness editor Lawrence Walsh leads a panel of vendors and solution providers who will share their secrets for finding success with overseas partners and in foreign markets. |
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| 9:30 am - 11:45 am |
XChange Appointments
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| 12:00 pm - 12:45 pm |
Concurrent Sessions
Session 1: "The Connected Market" Jeff O'Heir, Editor of Digital Connect, and Heather Clancy, VP and Editor CRN “The Connected Market,” Digital Connect’s new reader survey. Learn who the new breed of digital integrators are, the hottest products and solutions they’re installing and the new revenue streams they’re creating. Session 2: "Redefining What it Takes to Win in Tomorrow's Solution Provider Market" Presented by: Toni Clayton Hine, Managing Director, IPED There was a time when all it took to win as a Solution Provider was a good solution, an aggressive price, and consistent availability. But the market has changed - matured - and the factors of competition have multiplied. So what does it take to win as a Solution Provider today? And what will it take tomorrow? Join the Institute for Partner Education and Development (IPED) for this exclusive look at the elements of business performance and execution that separate the winners from the rest of the pack - and what you need to do to beat your competition. |
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| 12:45 pm - 2:00 pm |
XChange XCellence Awards Luncheon
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| Wednesday, January 24 | ||||
| 6:45 pm - 7:30 pm |
Ingram Micro Speed Networking
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